The Triplane Tribuild! (Catchy, huh?)

[kilroy07]

Awesome!

I was thinking about doing something for the gear as well.
I was simply going to replace the foam bits with thin plywood... Your idea sounds a bit more than that, so I'm interested in seeing what you come up with.

 

[sundown57]

Awesome!

I was thinking about doing something for the gear as well.
I was simply going to replace the foam bits with thin plywood... Your idea sounds a bit more than that, so I'm interested in seeing what you come up with.

so am I . lol

 

[sundown57]

seems this idea is easier said then done

 

[kilroy07]

What in the world?...

Okay, I'm going back to the wings... I'll cross that bridge when I get to it...

 

[buzzbomb]

seems this idea is easier said then done

You're bracing both the wings and landing gear with hobby-grade plywood. That's ambitious! Looks heavy, as well. Don't know about that one.

I like the aggressive angle you've got the gear struts at. I'm assuming that's the lower wing, and the fuse has to pass through the "X." I can see all that happening, but all that vertical weight is behind the CG. That's not good. You might take a page from one Peter Stripol's designs. He was fond of cutting holes in things to reduce weight.

I love that you're stepping out there and innovating. You recognized a flaw in a design from experience, and you're going crazy trying to solve it. You've told me before that the wing struts tend to crumple very easily on impact (I'll have some impacts That's GaaRunteed!) and the landing gear likes to rip off.

That being said, now that we can visualize what you're doing... Anybody got some experienced input?

 

[sundown57]

wings are on and the cabane and landing gear are all one piece. now just got to see what I've done to CG and overall weight. But if you think about it , i removed 7 pieces of foamboard and close to a foot of heavy gauge wire and replaced it with 4 thin pieces of plywood and 4 inches of wire. so maybe by luck, it will come out the same. I will weigh it up when it's done.

 

[buzzbomb]

wings are on and the cabane and landing gear are all one piece. now just got to see what I've done to CG and overall weight. But if you think about it , i removed 7 pieces of foamboard and close to a foot of heavy gauge wire and replaced it with 4 thin pieces of plywood and 4 inches of wire. so maybe by luck, it will come out the same. I will weigh it up when it's done.

That has quickly become a thing of beauty. You've got plywood wing struts as well? Wow! Are the forces from landing going to be directly transferred to the top wing, or is there bracing in fuselage, and my gosh but it's beautiful, but that's a lot of weight!

 

[sundown57]

Hopefully, these pictures will show it in more detail. The strut I made is glued to all 3 wings plus the fuselage right at the bottom wing, then angles forward and down to the axle then straight up again back to the fuselage where it is also glued ( just behind the doublers ).

 

[mayan]

That looks great, I still haven't gotten around to it but probably I will tomorrow. I trust that my the end of the day I'll have the Mini Edge build done. One question though for those who have built this model before, is the landing gear a must?

 

[kilroy07]

I see what you did now @sundown57 , yes the pics help a lot!

Mayan, while it might not “need” gear... there are two points to consider;
Without the weight, it might be harder to balance and the weight below cg might help with stability.
Also, WWI planes weren’t known to have retracts! 😂

 

[mayan]

I see what you did now @sundown57 , yes the pics help a lot!

Mayan, while it might not “need” gear... there are two points to consider;
Without the weight, it might be harder to balance and the weight below cg might help with stability.
Also, WWI planes weren’t known to have retracts! 😂

LOL, I was thinking of putting a bigger battery and drop the landing gear . Although your idea for retracts is a great idea, never done that so that might be a first.

 

[kilroy07]

So, this might be a thing....

 

[buzzbomb]

So, this might be a thing....
View attachment 129634

Nice Skin! I'm toying with a much less complicated scheme, but I'm not ready to share that just yet.

 

[sundown57]

Finished the build. if nothing more it's pretty. maybe someday it will even stop raining. Curiosity does anyone weigh their planes when they are done? If so it would be interesting to post the results here so we can compare how close they come to the specs on the drawing.

 

[kilroy07]

Finished the build. if nothing more it's pretty. maybe someday it will even stop raining. Curiosity does anyone weigh their planes when they are done? If so it would be interesting to post the results here so we can compare how close they come to the specs on the drawing.

Nice build!
I should be right behind you... (pics soon...)
I see you did the wing struts in plywood too, I think I will use a skewer. Interested is seeing how much better they hold up.

I'll weigh mine when finished, what did you come in at?...
Speaking of weight, I weighed my "high quality" tail, 20 grams... Regular foamboard 8. So, about what I was expecting at twice as much...
I might just put on the regular tail tonight.
Also, I need to find out what I did with my wheels...

 

[buzzbomb]

Also, I need to find out what I did with my wheels...

Ummm... They're nice wheels. I had to modify your 3d printed mount a bit to fit my battery, but my simple scout really appreciated them. Even got a set for the second Simple Scout. Without them, we'd probably just have hand launched the bird and neither my son nor I would yet know what it was to take off from the ground, nor would we have experienced that wonderful landing of his. Thank you, man. Love.

 

[sundown57]

Nice build!
I should be right behind you... (pics soon...)
I see you did the wing struts in plywood too, I think I will use a skewer. Interested is seeing how much better they hold up.

I'll weigh mine when finished, what did you come in at?...
Speaking of weight, I weighed my "high quality" tail, 20 grams... Regular foamboard 8. So, about what I was expecting at twice as much...
I might just put on the regular tail tonight.
Also, I need to find out what I did with my wheels...

while building mine I knocked it off the table and it landed right on one wheel sideways, broke 2 spokes so had to super glue back together, being a newbie that was the only set I have. but they only have to hold up for one launch cause I dont plan to land till the battery is dead anyway, LOL

 

[buzzbomb]

Finished the build. if nothing more it's pretty. maybe someday it will even stop raining. Curiosity does anyone weigh their planes when they are done? If so it would be interesting to post the results here so we can compare how close they come to the specs on the drawing.

Wow! What an absolutely glorious creation! You've outdone yourself with this one, uncle! I don't weigh mine, no. I've got a little scale from my son's BoyScout Derby days, though. I don't know if it can handle the weight of my balancing jig and the plane on it, but I'll find out when the build is complete.

No surprise to me, your build looks perfect. I'm also going to assume your CG is perfect. What drivetrain are you using? (Drivetrain. I'm using that word to cover prop, motor, esc and battery, because saying all that is cumbersome. Maybe we can standardize to just "drivetrain.)

 

[sundown57]

Wow! What an absolutely glorious creation! You've outdone yourself with this one, uncle! I don't weigh mine, no. I've got a little scale from my son's BoyScout Derby days, though. I don't know if it can handle the weight of my balancing jig and the plane on it, but I'll find out when the build is complete.

No surprise to me, your build looks perfect. I'm also going to assume your CG is perfect. What drivetrain are you using? (Drivetrain. I'm using that word to cover prop, motor, esc and battery, because saying all that is cumbersome. Maybe we can standardize to just "drivetrain.)

Yeah the CG wasn't much of a problem at all Motor is right where it should be but I did have to move that battery back about 1/2 inch to get it dead on. BUT. for some stupid reason I had a real bad lateral balance problem. I rechecked everything like 3 times, everything is dead nuts square. wings are centered perfectly but one wing was heavier than the other soi did have to fix that. I bought the stock F pack from flite test so it's a 20A esc, 2205 motor and 850mAh battery and 6.3 prop. One question i have is i would like to make this a slow flyer for now ( because i am really bad at flying) so I was thinking of trying to use a 9x5 prop i have to give it more torque at lower speed. Think that's a bad idea?

 

[Hai-Lee]

Been on the side quietly watching until now! IF the plywood used turns to be too heavy there is a simple, (but a little more expensive way of reinforcing the FB pieces. Laminate them with thin balsa, (i.e. 1mm or 1/32") using the grain of the wood to align with the landing forces will make it much stronger for a little weight penalty only.

Just a thought!

Have fun!